Hello Guest!
Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum.
There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.

Goosegirl - Can you dig one up and see if they've started? I planted grocery store potatoes, didn't see any results after maybe 3 weeks, dug them up, nothing, took them out, replaced them with seed potatoes from the feed store.

I just moved the straw off one and saw a little sprout. I think by the end of the week I will have lots of sprouts poking up! It is already 74* here (it has not been that hot lately) and we are expecting a doozy of a T-Storm tonight, then highs in the 70's for the 10-day. It has not been consistently warm so I think this week just may be what my whole garden needs!

Do some potatoes grow a lot slower than others? I planted yukon golds and red... the red are speedy buggers--as soon as I cover them they seem to pop right back out. The yukons are growing but SUPER slow... they are less than half the size. They are all in one big box together in the same dirt.

yes....my garbage can potatoes grew a lot faster then the wine barrels did....they are a smaller type of white potatoe.....the wine barrels were reds and yukon golds....they came up a lot later then the others.....i want to say about a month or so.....

You guys keep talking about POTATOES, I'm going to have to bust out and inundate you with all the interesting Tater Lore I've learned for our community farm!

I'll try to control myself:

Here's why you all got potatoes that matured at different rates -

"Early potatoes are exactly what their name describes, potatoes that are picked as an early crop. Early potatoes take about 100 days to mature and are followed by second earlies and main crop, or regular crop, potatoes. Early potatoes are often not peeled because the skin is so tender and thin. Peeling them, however, creates a creamy potato that cooks quickly. Because early potatoes are so tender, they are good to use in salads and cold dishes. Regular crop potatoes may be tough when served cold or will fall apart from too much cooking to make them tender."

Red Norlands are earlies and Kennebecs (a white potato) are main crop. These are the two kinds I planted WAY WAY late... but most of them are growing!

OK, just for fun:

Potatoes are one of the most nutritious staple crops discovered by man. With milk in the diet, it can be a sustaining and healthful source of energy, vitamins, and minerals both in times of want and in times of plenty.

Potatoes were introduced to America in the 18th century. They were first planted in Idaho in 1836; the state now grows 25% of the nation’s potatoes.

Idahoan Luther Burbank developed the Russet Burbank potato in 1872, a more disease-resistant version of the Irish russet potato.

I had suspected the different growth rates might be attributed to early/late varieties. Because my spuds are not shooting out of the ground (altho they are sprouting finally) and they're the Burbanks.

I have always wondered how nutritious potatoes are. I know they're starchy, and that the Irish seemed to use them as a dietary staple. It's good to know they are highly nutritious, because I think they get pooh-poohed a lot. They are underrated.

If they're really that nutritious, they're going to get a bigger priority spot in my garden next year. Easy to grow, easy to store, taste good.

So I was going to post about this in my garden thread but this seems more appropriate.

I planted My potatoes about a month ago (Yukon gold and Red) and yesterday I started noticing that the lower leaves were turning yellow. I have been checking the plant for bugs but don't see any. I water every day once a day till water comes out the bottom of my container. I have a Layer of compost in the bottom, hilled up once with more compost a big layer of MM and a second seeding of potatoes. then hilled up again with compost.

The potatoes haven't fluoresced yet and I was wondering if there is something else I should be on the look out for. Thanks for any help.

A footnote to oxmyx1’s cool reprise of potatoes in North America: The Makah Native American tribe in Washington State have been cultivating potatoes since the late 1700s. Here’s the story from Nichols Garden Nursery’s catalog:

“This heirloom potato of the Makah people in Northwest Washington came to North America directly from Peru on a Spanish ship. It may well be the only potato that didn’t have a circuitous trip from South America to Europe and eventually to North America. In the late 1700s, Spaniards sailed up the Pacific coast and built a fort in far NW Washington. Their garden included these potatoes. They soon abandoned the fort. When they departed, members of the Ozette village of the Makah tribe, came in and found the potatoes. These were nurtured, planted and harvested for over 200 years. Their local diet was quite low in carbohydrates so the potatoes were especially appreciated. These fingerlings range from 3"-7" in length. Noted for having a firm, creamy consistency and pale yellow color, the flavor and texture lend them to salads, roasting and steaming. This potato has been placed on the Slow Food Ark of Taste.”

If these Makah Ozette ‘taters mature in our garden this year—and they’re looking good at this time—I’ll share more information about them. BTW, Oxmyx1, even growing up in Idaho, I never knew the Burbank Russet was descended from an Irish Russet! Thanks for sharing. Nonna

Here are my potatoes. They are all in buckets. I don't know what kind they are other then red. I sent my husband to get red pontiacs in town. But they were all gone so he got these instead. I guess there was no name on them. I said well did you ask someone in the store if they could find out?

The first 2 buckets have been hilled once. The 3rd isn't tall enough yet.

L-Deb, yes, the Nichols Garden Nursery catalog lists them as Makah Ozette potatoes, but a quick delve into their on-line catalog says they're sold out for this year. Having been grown in the Northwest, and along the rain forest coast, for some 200 years, I figured they'd adapted well to our climate, hence the planting in our St. Helens, OR, garden. If you're unable to get starts, let's keep in touch and on one of my trips to Seattle area, perhaps we could meet up for a tater exchange. In fact, when I go to visit my sister in Mt. Vernon area, might even be able to meet up in your local Everett McDonald's on I-5 on my way through. Fun to try new things, isn't it? Nonna

Potatoes are one of the most versatile and widely eaten foods worldwide. They are actually considered a stem tuber—a starch rather than a vegetable.China is now the world's largest potato-producing country, and nearly a third of the world's potatoes are harvested in China and India.It is the world's fourth-largest food crop, following rice, wheat, and maize.

A medium-size 150 g (5.3 oz) potato with the skin provides 27 mg of vitamin C (45% of the Daily Value (DV)), 620 mg of potassium (18% of DV), 0.2 mg vitamin B6 (10% of DV) and trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and zinc. The fiber content of a potato with skin (2 g) is equivalent to that of many whole grain breads, pastas, and cereals.In terms of nutrition, the potato is best known for its carbohydrate content (approximately 26 grams in a medium potato). The predominant form of this carbohydrate is starch. A small but significant portion of this starch is resistant to digestion by enzymes in the stomach and small intestine, and so reaches the large intestine essentially intact. This resistant starch is considered to have similar physiological effects and health benefits as fiber: It provides bulk, offers protection against colon cancer, improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, lowers plasma cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, increases satiety, and possibly even reduces fat storage. The amount of resistant starch in potatoes depends much on preparation methods. Cooking and then cooling potatoes significantly increased resistant starch. For example, cooked potato starch contains about 7% resistant starch, which increases to about 13% upon cooling. The nutrients of the potato seem to be fairly evenly distributed between the flesh and the skin.

Yep, I meant NORTH America - however...

Potatoes were first domesticated more than 6,000 years ago. The Incas cultivated numerous species of potato. The name is said to originate from the Spanish patata, a combination of batata (sweet potato) and papa (a word for potato from the Inca Quechua language).

AND!

In 1995, potato plants were taken into space with the space shuttle Columbia. This marked the first time any food was ever grown in space.

Totally wondermous, Oxmyx1, great info! BTW, this month's Costco Connection magazine has an article on potatoes, titled: Tater thoughts, tracking a lot of what you wrote. It also mentions a Women's Health Study that ultimately found that women who ate healthy portions of potatoes prepared in a healthful manner stayed healthy or even lost weight if they were dieting. The article also advocates eating more than one kind of potato to get nutritional benefits found in various types of potatoes. Guess I never thought that different varieties had different nutritional quotients, but it makes sense.